Court documents: iTunes-iPod antitrust lawsuit

As reported by the Associated Press and others, Apple’s latest Securities and Exchange Commission filing mentioned an additional antitrust lawsuit over the tight connection between the iTunes Store and the iPod. It was filed by an iPod owner in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California last year. Two similar consumer suits are currently pending in the U.S. and France.

Among other things, the latest lawsuit (PDF, 21 pages) contains a specific Microsoft-related angle. The allegations are based in part on the iPod’s incompatibility with music services that use the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format. Here’s what the suit says on the subject:

“The protected music file format used by most Online Music stores is the WMA format. … There are no technological limitations preventing the iPod from supporting WMA playback. … By preventing the iPod from playing WMA or any other protected music format besides FairPlay-modified AAC format, iPod owners’ only option to purchase Online Music is to purchase from Apple’s Music Store. This constitutes an illegal tie in violation of antitrust laws.”

Here’s how Apple responded in its motion to dismiss the case (PDF, 20 pages):

“Without DRM, legal online music stores would not exist. Thus, this complaint does not challenge Apple’s use of some form of DRM. Rather, it attacks Apple’s decision to develop and use its own DRM rather than licensing and using Microsoft’s. As a matter of antitrust law, however, that theory is so unsupportable that plaintiff cannot bring herself to identify Microsoft as the maker of the software that she contends Apple should be forced to use. Enhancing Microsoft’s dominance is obviously not a goal of the antitrust laws. But the central flaw of this complaint is much broader than that. No matter who makes the software, the antitrust laws simply do not require Apple or anyone else to use another company’s technology.”

In a Dec. 20 decision, U.S. District Judge James Ware denied Apple’s motion to dismiss, allowing the case to move ahead. Here’s his ruling: PDF, 17 pages.

Update: In the comments below, a reader raises the additional issue of tracks purchased from the iTunes Store only playing on the iPod, not on other types of devices. I didn’t mention it above, but that is also the basis for one of the allegations in the suit. See Paragraph 14 of the complaint.

In its motion to dismiss, Apple argued that the situation doesn’t run afoul of antitrust laws, and it brought up Microsoft’s integrated Zune service and device to bolster its point. From the Apple motion:

“In short, making complementary, innovative products that work seamlessly together is a plus for consumers, not an antitrust violation. Indeed, recognizing the value of this approach, Microsoft itself recently announced that it is planning to introduce its own portable digital player to complement its online music store and compete with iPod.”